Rope by Patrick Hamilton
To be directed by Emily Bridger, Patrick Hamilton’s Rope will be performed at the Bridewell Theatre on 29-31st July 2010. Find out more from www.spreadeagleplayers.org.uk.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Synopsis: In a pair of sumptuous drawing rooms, one in a Parisian mansion, the other in a chateau on a luxurious estate in the countryside surrounding Paris, two aristocrats are very bored. To alleviate her boredom, the Marquise de Merteuil decides to construct a little intrigue for her own amusement and the amusement of her former lover, the Vicomte de Valmont.
The Marquise is aware that a young girl of good family, Cécile Volanges, has just left the convent in order to get married to the Comte de Gercourt. The Marquise has a bone to pick with this particular Comte and decides to extract her revenge. The Marquise suggests to the Vicomte that he seduce and debauch Cécile to create a scandal and humiliate Gercourt.
As events unfold the play takes in seduction, rape, a fight to the death and the total destruction of the characters’ lives. Les liaisons Dangereuses is by no means an easy play. However, it is full of dramatic incident as emotions run high and lead to violence and death.
The Spreadeagle players are marking the culmination of their 120th year with Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Come and see the play at the Bridewell Theatre, off Fleet Street, London. The play will peform between 4th and 7th November from 7.30pm each night. It’s a powerful play and you are guaranteed a treat.
Social Hierarchy amongst the French Nobility
Nobility in France was tyically hereditary, passed down the male line. The advantages of being born noble included exemption from taxes, sole access to certain offices and positions within the civil and military administrations of France, and all commissions in the army.
The guiding pricicple behind this system was the belief that to be born noble was to possess greater intelligence, more refined sentiments and a ‘right’ to the best life had to offer. These expectations and assumptions underscore Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
The titles of French nobility, in order of importance:
- Duc
- Comte
- Marquis
- Vicomte
- Baron
These titles as well as the names of the family were derived from the properties they were attached to, and only one person at a time could carry each of these titles. The title was not in itself a test of nobility. After all, there were many more family members than titles to go around!
Other degrees of nobility also excited attention, especially amongst the hierarchy at the Versailles court. These included the length of time your family been noble and how many of your paternal and maternal grandparents’ lineages were noble. Of those already blessed enough to claim the ties of nobility, some could also claim peerages. These peers originated from the twelve dukes who were raised in the 12th century above the other dukes by the King as his direct vassals. There were also ecclesiastical peers, which ranked ahead of lay peers. For lay peers, the order of precedence was determined by date of peerage’s creation- except as it applied to Princes of the Blood, they gained precedence over the other peers, regardless of peerage creation date, because of their claim to royal blood.
By the time of Louis XIV, the main role of the peers was to participate in the coronation ceremony. This was important, because it created precedence in day-to-day life for the title-holder over others without this distinction.
The labyrinthine etiquette played out at the Versailles Court from Louis XIVs time onwards developed out of an already complex system of noble distinction. The prestige attached to a name was a valuable commodity for those trying to advance themselves or their connections at court. What is more the system of court etiquette devised under Louis XIV prevailed through subsequent reigns and ended only with the execution of Louis XVI. It is this etiquette which forms the cornerstone of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Life at Versailles was centered on conversational skill and interpersonal interactions, much of which was non-verbal in its expression. The way courtiers moved through the day at court could be summed up with the housekeeping maxim: “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” And ‘place’ and ‘order’ was all, in every regard and at all times. A lack of subservience to those higher ranked than you was punishable by ostracism at best or more vile punishments as specified by the slighted party. It was a system built on fear.
While these distinctions seem unimportant in our more democratic era, in the 17th century knowledge and use of proper etiquette was vital because it was the foundation of the social order and political system of the ancien regime.
As this extract from the original novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos makes clear, the subtle dictinctions between the nobility extended even to friendships:
“Come back, my dear Vicomte, come back: what are you doing, what can you possibly do at the house of an old aunt whose property is all entailed on you? Leave at once: I need you. I have had an excellent idea and I want to put its execution in your hands. These few words should be enough; only too honoured by this mark of my consideration, you should come, eagerly, and take my orders on your knees. But you abuse my kindness, even now that you no longer exploit it. Remember that since the alternative to this excessive indulgence is my eternal hatred, your happiness demands that indulgence prevail. Well, I am willing to inform you of my plans, but swear first that, as my faithful cavalier, you will undertake no other enterprise till you have accomplished this one.”
(The Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont)
To get a better insight into the claustrophobia and intrigue prevalent at Versailles in pre-revolutionary France, come and see the Spread Eagle Players’ production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Bridewell Theatre, London in November 2009.
Les liasons dangereuses (or why the French Revolution happened)
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical political and social upheaval. The French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent wholesale change to a form of government based on the Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights.
The Ancien Régime’s approach to governing France was the primary cause of the Revolution. Widespread famine and malnutrition (caused, according to recent studies, by a disruption of El Nino, the beneficial sea current) and outbreaks of disease and death for the impoverished peasant class were the pricipal symptoms of economic breakdown.
This situation was exacerbated by the intentional starvation in the most destitute segments of the population in the months immediately before the Revolution, in large part to conserve state finances overstretched by an ill-fated support for the Americal Revolution and to recoup from the military mis-adventures of the previous Monarch, Louis XV.
By 1789 the French national debt amounted to almost two billion livres. The burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation and the deprivation it caused was in stark contrast to the conspicuous consumption of the nobility attending the lavish court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles.
Les liaisons dangereuses examines the indolent and lavish life of aristocrats whose lives are lived for sexual pleasure, where other people are pawns in a game of moral licence. As such, the play captures a moment in time where the balance tipped decisively against the Ancien Regine.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos , also known as Choderlos de Laclos, who lived from 1741-1803, was the novelist and General who wrote Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782).
The novel is in letter form and centres on themes of cynical seduction played out by high-born aristocrats. The savage tone of the novel contrasts with the vogue for high moral sentiment established by Rousseau at about the same time.
Laclos contrasted the moral licence of those who naturally assumed they were superior leaders of society with the high moral tone of the ‘natural man’ personified by the soon to be revolutionary peasant.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Laclos also commanded troops both under the post Revolutionary French Directory and then under Napoleon.
The Spread Eagle Players (Barclays Dramatic Society) will be bringing these themes alive with dramatic flair at the Bridewell Theatre in November 2009 with their performance of Christopher Hampton’s play Les Liasons Dangereuses.
Don’t miss the updates and do come and see the show.
Closing Thoughts
We sold out each of the 4 shows. Audience feedback was excellent and the cast left exhilerated each night – so quite a lot was right!
Now we are starting to plan for the remainder of the 2009 season. We aim to perform two more plays this year, one in June and another in November. Catch www.spreadeagleplayers.org.uk for details of these as they arise.
Rehearsals for these will commence 12 to 10 weeks prior to showtime.
A sell-out show
We have a sell out show on our hands.
Thursday 15th January, our first show, has sold-out. The performance on Friday 16th January still has some tickets available. The Saturday matinee and the Saturday evening have around 10 tickets each remaining to be sold.
Now we need to get into the theatre, set up the lights and set, tweak the costumes, run through the plays and manage all the othe issues that lead to a disciplined and well performed show.
Dreams, interpretation and psychology
“The images and ideas that dreams contain cannot be explained solely in terms of memory. They express new thoughts that have never reached the threshold of consciousness.”
Carl Jung
Dreams are composed of images, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping during rapid eye movement sleep, or deep sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood. Throughout recorded history, dreams have fascinated human beings, defied interpretation and been the source of much creative inspiration.
“In dreams we catch glimpses of a life larger than our own . . . Thoughts are imparted to us far above our ordinary thinking.”
Helen Keller
It might be said that in order to establish the meaning of any dream, it is first necessary to become familiar with the individual dreamer’s dreamprint. The ‘dreamer’ is the author of the dream after all. Each author has their unique signature/style/fingerprint. However, our associations to experiences that have had an emotional impact upon us are unique. As such, a ‘dream dictionary’ of generic interpretations is of minimal use when trying to understand the often puzzling symbols that appear in our dreams.
So, when seeing a play that is all about dreams each person will go away with a different experience of it. It can be cathartic, inspiring, relaxing or just plain entertaining. In this increasingly standardised age, that individual experience has to be a good thing.
Distorted perceptions and logic
Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWs) is named after the Lewis Carroll story and is also known as Todd’s syndrome. AIWs is a neurological condition which affects human perception. Sufferers experience size distortion and other sensory effects.
A largely temporary condition, AIWs is often associated with migraines, brain tumours and the use of psychoactive drugs. Lewis Carroll was known to suffer from migraines and eplilepsy. His diaries referred to walls moving amongst other sensory descriptions, suggesting that these experiences of distorted perception may have informed Alice in Wonderland.
Anecdotal reports suggests that the symptoms of AIWs are fairly common in childhood. It appears that AIWs is also a common experience at sleep onset.
